[ExI] Efficiency of algorithmic trading

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

On Mon, May 2, 2011 at 9:11 AM, Mr Jones <mrjones2020 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, May 1, 2011 at 11:03 AM, Rafal Smigrodzki
> <rafal.smigrodzki at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> ### Ah, the typical moralizing
>
> Morality has nothing to do with this.  I don't subscribe to the
> objective-moral-truth camp.  This is about long-term
> viability/sustainability, and avoiding people 'pissing in the pool' so to
> speak.
>
### AFAICR, except for calling for cutting military spending (with
which I enthusiastically agree) you haven't yet supported any policy
which would improve long term viability of the economy. Fleecing the
best workers is actually short-sighted pissing in the pool.

----------------

>
> By all means, be richer than I.  Be WAY richer.  My objection isn't those
> that have much, it's that the way the system has been designed prevents many
> from having ANY, due to those few that have so much.

### So why do you want to take money from CEOs? How did Sam Walton
prevent millions of Chinese workers from improving their incomes?

-------------------------
>
> Well, when the few hold such an exorbitant amount of available opportunity,
> who can blame them.

### No, they hold accounting tokens. They don't prevent others from
finding opportunities, that's why the industrious and smart coming
from modest means, like about 95% of the US business elite, are able
to help millions to achieve better lives (e.g. by bringing the US
consumers and Chinese peasants together in a mutually beneficial trade
arrangement, Walmart pulled hundreds of millions of people away from
the brink of starvation and into the middle class), and yes, some of
the executive make billions of dollars, which is still a very small
fraction of a percent (usually <0.1%) of the total gains to the
society.

----------------
>
> Less efficient my ass.  If anything capitalists should WANT those billions
> of people as consumers.  That kind of forward thinking goes against
> everything our quarterly-profit-driven world stands for, however.  Again,
> short-sighted fools.  Sort of like the USoA wasting TRILLIONS on securing
> oil reserves, instead of investing TRILLIONS in
> infrastructure/energy independence.  Missing the forest for the trees.

### Man, every sentence above is a leftist/environmentalist cliche,
and none of them make the slightest quantitative sense. Trillions for
energy independence? Lol. Wasting trillions on securing oil reserves?
I wish. Just a couple days ago the EPA scuttled an expedition looking
to drill for oil in the Arctic. 2.2 billion $ that was already
invested went down the drain, a few billion in possible gains up in
smoke. But who cares, the US is rich, no? Building a consumer base by
firing your good executive and hiring a cheap one? Give me a break.

Rafal